Thursday, June 18, 2009

Franklin County Appeals Court: Doesn’t Pay to Be Too Clever By Half

Last week, the Franklin County Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the defendant employer and ordered the rescission of a severance agreement where a typographical error in the agreement provided the employee with twelve extra months of severance pay which the employer had not intended to provide. Faivre v. DEX Corp. Northeast, 2009-Ohio-2660 (6/9/09). The employee admittedly had been told that the employer was only offering him three months of severance and he indicated that he would need to have at least twelve months. When he reviewed the agreement in detail after returning home, he realized that the offered severance agreement (which had been drafted by the employer and had already been signed by the employer’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources) promised to pay him severance through 2007 instead of three months later in 2006. Rather than clarifying the issue with the employer, he instead signed and returned the agreement. Quickly realizing its error, the employer immediately asked him to sign a revised page and said that if he did not agree to reform the agreement, it would consider the agreement to be rescinded due to mistake.

Instead, the employee filed suit against the employer for breach of contract. The trial court ruled in favor of the employer, but ordered a reformation of the contract to provide for the three months of severance pay initially offered by the employer. Both sides appealed. On appeal the court of appeals agreed that the parole evidence rule – which typically would bar extrinsic or outside evidence to contradict the clear terms of a contract – did not bar evidence of mistake. In this case, the employer made a mistake and the employee was admittedly aware of the mistake.

The court also agreed that the trial court had authority to reform the contract. However, the court found that was not a proper remedy because there had never been a mutual agreement on the amount of severance. The employer offered three months and the employee wanted twelve. Because there had never been a “meeting of the minds,” there could be no contract to resurrect by reformation.

The court agreed to rescind the contract altogether (meaning the employee would receive no severance). This was pursuant to a Restatement provision:


Where a mistake of one party at the time a contract was made as to a basic assumption on which he made the contract has a material effect on the agreed exchange of performances that is adverse to him, the contract is voidable
by him if he does not bear the risk of the mistake . . .

Thus, unless the mistaken party bears the risk of a mistake, a court may rescind a contract if: (1) one party made a mistake at the time the parties executed the contract, (2) the mistake had a material effect on the agreed exchange of performances that was adverse to the mistaken party, and (3) the other party had reason to know of the mistake.


The court rejected the employee’s argument that the employer had assumed the risk of mistake when it unilaterally prepared and presented the agreement. First, the employee knew about the mistake because the agreement’s terms did not match what he had been told in his exit interview. Finally, the court refused to put the risk on the employer even though it negligently drafted the agreement: “Pursuant to Section 154 of the Second Restatement of Contracts:


A party bears the risk of a mistake when

(a) the risk is allocated to him by agreement of the
parties, or
(b) he is aware, at the time the contract is made, that
he has only limited knowledge with respect to the facts to
which the mistake relates but treats his limited knowledge as
sufficient, or
(c) the risk is allocated to him by the court on the
ground that it is reasonable in the circumstances to do so.

. . .

Subsection (c) is a "catchall provision" that permits a court to allocate the
risk of a mistake to the mistaken party if, under the totality of the circumstances, it would be more equitable or reasonable to do so. . . . " '[A] party's negligence is immaterial where the mistake is in the expression of the contract and the other party knew of the mistake and took advantage of it.' "

. . .

As we concluded above, [the employee] had reason to know that the severance agreement contained a typographical error. Instead of seeking clarification regarding the length of the severance period, [the employee] attempted to take advantage of [the employer’s] error. Therefore, equity and reasonableness do not require us to place the risk of the mistake on [the employer] due to its negligence.



Insomniacs can read the full decision at http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/docs/pdf/10/2009/2009-ohio-2660.pdf

NOTICE: This summary is designed merely to inform and alert you of recent legal developments. It does not constitute legal advice and does not apply to any particular situation because different facts could lead to different results. Information here can change or be amended without notice. Readers should not act upon this information without legal advice. If you have any questions about anything you have read, you should consult with or retain an employment attorney.